Exclusive Interview - Lettuce talks venues and fans

Estes Park fans can experience their grooves close to home at the Stanley Hotel two nights: Friday, Feb. 22 and Saturday, Feb 23. Photo by Alex Varsa. (Courtesy photo)

Lettuce is a funk band that has been sharing their psychedelic, blissful jazz rhythms and beats with audiences for over two decades. Later this month, they will be spending two nights with the Stanley Hotel.

It will be guitarist Adam "Shmeeans" Smirnoff's first time playing at the hotel's historic venue and said he looks forward to meeting "Lucy," the spirit of a teenage girl whose presence has been reported to the hotel by guests in the green room below the Stanley Concert Hall.

"It sounds like she and I would have gotten along," Smirnoff said. "So we'll be hanging out in the green room together. I'll bring something nice for her and I'll leave it for her."

Lettuce is driven by their fan base. Photo by Alex Varsa. (Courtesy photo)

One undeniable fact about the funk band is that they have a devoted fan base that is enthusiastic about their music and onstage personalities. Smirnoff said the band draws influence from their fans.

"And I think they're beginning to take notice," he said, noting that the band looks to fan clubs out there dedicated to Lettuce. "We look for when people are like, 'Hey you guys haven't played this song in a while.' That might influence like we might go 'You know, let's bring this back out and play it on the tour.' I feel like the connection we have with our fans, we get to communicate back and forth with them and I think it creates a really special relationship."

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This winter, Lettuce is passing through over 30 cities, Estes Park included, as part of their "Vibe Up Tour." Smirnoff said the funk group is looking to put out a new album after putting over a year of work into it. The band is in the mastering stage currently and they are looking to begin releasing songs in the coming months.

"I think the challenge for us is to really figure out the best way for us to put [the album] out, getting the whole thing financially together and making sure when you do release it, you touch the most amount of people possible and are not just throwing something out there that will just get lost," he said.

The band recently announced their fourth annual Rage Rocks show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, happening June 15. It will be the sixth time the band plays the iconic venue. Smirnoff said that when he plays there, he feels a vibrant connection to nature and to the past.

"I think it's one our struggles as humanity now just in general to feel that connection to nature," he said. "There's something about playing Red Rocks and being in the audience there as well, for everybody just being there... Whether it be the rock, the moon, the way that while you're on the stage if you catch a night where the moon ends up directly in between those two rocks with the sky above you and then like all the dinosaurs that have been found there."

Lettuce is expected to play two full sets, one of them being a Jerry Garcia cover set with support from the groups TAUK and The Soul Rebels at their Red Rocks show.

Before that though, Estes Park fans can experience their grooves close to home at the Stanley Hotel two nights: Friday, Feb. 22 and Saturday, Feb 23. Doors open at 7 p.m. both nights. For more information, visit stanleylive.com.

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